The Wandering Harlot (The Marie Series) by Lorentz Iny

Author:Lorentz, Iny [Lorentz, Iny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AmazonCrossing
Published: 2014-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

VIII.

Several hours passed before the last mercenary finally succumbed to the wine and their wild orgy. Marie didn’t want to imagine what would happen if her own torturers awoke to discover she had robbed them, but luck was on her side, and Siegward, his brother, and their armorer remained fast asleep. When it became quiet outside, with only the sound of a sobbing woman, Marie snuffed out the oil lamp’s wick and carefully exited the tent.

Only a few glowing embers still shone in the campfire, and the moon appeared in the clear sky as a thin crescent, so Marie had trouble putting one foot in front of the other. Her eyes slowly becoming used to the faint light, she saw sleeping men everywhere before she discovered a woman wandering around naked.

“Hiltrud? Is that you?” Marie asked in a whisper.

“Marie?” She sounded both surprised and relieved as she embraced her. “I hurt so much, I can scarcely walk. How are you feeling?”

“I feel like a pack of rabid dogs attacked me. Where are the others? We must get out of here as soon as possible.”

“Not until I have slit the throats of the men who murdered my goats,” she replied, her entire body shaking. Marie grabbed her arm so tightly that she groaned.

“That won’t bring them back to life again,” Marie said. “Be reasonable and come along with me. We’ve got to put a lot of distance between us and these fellows before morning, as I’ve stolen their leaders’ purses. The money will help compensate for your goats and everything they did to us here.”

Hiltrud clenched her fists, then quickly opened her hands again. “Well done. But you’re right—we must get out of here as fast as we can, because when they discover the theft, they’ll want to cut us up into little pieces.”

Putting on what remained of her dress, Hiltrud looked at Marie. “Hurry and get the others. In the meantime, I’ll get a few things from our cart that we can take on our backs, since we’ll unfortunately have to leave most of our possessions behind.”

Heading toward the sound of sobbing that she heard earlier, Marie found Märte slumped along one of the large wagon wheels. Even though she shook and cajoled the young girl to get ahold of herself, Märte only cried louder when she saw Marie. Not until Gerlind came staggering toward them like a pale, haggard ghost did Märthe calm down enough to stand up and pull together the tattered shreds of what had once been her dress.

Gerlind said nothing, but the furious kicks she gave to some of the sleeping drunks showed that her anger was greater than her fear. Her dress was so torn that it wasn’t even fit for a scarecrow, but since she had nothing else, she tied what was left of it together. Gerlind’s cursing attracted the attention of a completely naked Berta who was wandering around with a torch in her hand and examining the mercenaries lying on the ground.

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